


Truth or Consequences

by Sholio



Category: Iron Fist (TV)
Genre: Captivity, Drugs, F/M, Fluff and Angst, Hurt/Comfort, Truth Serum
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-17
Updated: 2019-04-17
Packaged: 2020-01-15 10:13:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,450
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18496828
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sholio/pseuds/Sholio
Summary: Danny on truth serum is pretty much normal Danny, just chattier.





	Truth or Consequences

**Author's Note:**

  * For [sheron](https://archiveofourown.org/users/sheron/gifts).



> This is what I started writing you for Fandom Stocking (with further inspiration from a conversation awhile back on the Iron Fist Discord). Better THREE MONTHS LATE than never, right?
> 
> This is set between seasons of Iron Fist, shortly after Defenders.

Colleen had to hand it to their captors: they'd spared no effort when it came to tying up their prisoners. Her hands were zip-tied separately to spikes hammered into a ceiling-supporting beam in an otherwise unfinished basement. The rest of her was lashed to the beam with chains. At least they'd chained her sitting down, although she was pretty sure it was because she'd been as uncooperative as possible and they had taken the path of least resistance rather than trying to chain her in an upright, testicle-kicking position, not out of any concern for her welfare.

But she didn't know where Danny was, and that was the thing that was driving her crazy and making her twist against her bonds until her wrists were abraded and she'd nearly dislocated one of her shoulders.

She was finally making a little bit of headway at slowly but surely working her left leg free when the door opened and a couple of guys dragged Danny into the room.

"Danny!" She lurched against her bonds, nearly strangling herself. Danny was moving, at least, making flailing, uncoordinated, and completely unsuccessful attempts to break loose as they started chaining him to a post across from Colleen.

The guy who seemed to be in charge gave a final tug to Danny's bonds and then looked over his shoulder at Colleen and said, "Have fun," before walking out. The door clunked shut and there was the sound of secure bolting.

"Danny!"

He was slumped in his chains, terrifying her. Danny was normally so animated, and she didn't know what they'd done to him, or how badly they'd hurt him. She didn't even know who "they" were, although she'd picked up enough to suspect they were a splinter sect of the Hand, possibly former students of Bakuto's or one of the other Hand bosses, or students of their students, who had survived the Midland Circle fiasco. And they were interested in the Iron Fist, because of course they were.

"Danny," she called again, coaxing. She finally managed to get her left leg out of the chains and stretched it across the bare concrete floor between them, but she couldn't quite reach his foot with her own. "Danny, c'mon. Give me a sign, tell me you can hear me, say _something."_

He wasn't completely out; she could hear him mumbling something. Finally, by wriggling down as far as she could get in her bonds, she managed to tap her foot against his, which seemed to get his attention at last. He raised his head with a faint, "Colleen?" And then he broke into a grin. "Colleen!"

"Hey there," she said, weak with relief. "What's a nice guy like you doing in a place like this?"

Danny just grinned at her. He was scuffed up and bruised, his mouth smeared with fresh blood -- oh, she was _definitely_ getting payback when she got out of here. But that was just superficial damage. Much more worrying, he was flushed and sweaty, his hair plastered to his forehead. Even from here, by the light of the single naked bulb overhead, she could see that his eyes were dilated right up to the rims.

"What did they give you?" she asked. "Danny, did they drug you?"

"Yes?" he said, and then more definitely, "Yes. Yes, they did drug me. It's really something. I feel so weird. Is that light awfully bright or is it just me?"

"It's not that bright." She tapped his foot with hers again. "Danny, hey. Pay attention. Do you feel sick?"

"Not really, I mostly just feel weird and kind of floaty," he said, blinking at her. "You look great, though. You look really pretty. Even with chains on. Have I told you you're pretty, Colleen?"

"Yes," she said, both touched and worried. "What did they ask you about?"

"Oh, lots of things, all about the Iron Fist and K'un Lun. I pretty much told them whatever they wanted to know because it's not like a big secret, and the city's gone anyway and I told them all about fighting the dragon and what it feels like to use the Iron Fist and they kept hitting me but they really didn't have to, I was perfectly happy to tell them anything they asked me about, because it really wasn't _that_ big of a secret --"

"Danny," she said, kicking his foot and trying not to dwell on the _kept hitting me_ part. Oh, payback was _definitely_ going to happen. "Whatever they gave you, can you burn it out of your system, like you did with me? Using the Iron Fist?"

"Oh, that's a great idea," he said, beaming, and then his face visibly fell. "No, no, it won't work, I can't get the Fist to work when I'm like this, I found that out in Birch Psychiatric, did I ever tell you about that? It was the worst, honestly. I hate being tied up." He jerked at his bonds as if he'd just realized that he _was_ tied up. "But then I punched my way through the wall and got out and I went to see Joy and --"

"Danny." She was starting to realize why the sort-of-Hand jerk had given her that look. She hoped they'd had a lot of fun trying to get useful information out of Danny. It had never occurred to her to wonder what Danny with no filter would be like. The answer apparently was a lot like normal Danny, except with more free-associating.

"Right, sorry, I've been babbling, I know I'm babbling but I can't seem to stop. That really bothered those guys upstairs, which is dumb because they were asking me questions so you'd think they'd want me to talk, but -- Did I tell you you're pretty? Because you are," Danny said, gazing at her in a drunkenly besotted kind of way. "You're really awesome, Colleen. You're so brave and smart and so _good_ with that sword, and I remember thinking when I saw you, She looks so _nice,_ and you are, you _are_ nice, Colleen --"

"Danny." She kicked his foot again, and he blinked at her. "You're nice too," she said, because he looked so vulnerable like this, damn it, and he grinned sloppily at her. "Did you happen to see anything of the layout of this place while you were out there? Where did they take you for interrogation?"

"There were stairs," he said, not very helpfully. "Those guys are not at _all_ nice."

"I know. Can you tell me about the room where they asked you questions?"

She worked her way slowly through a question-and-answer session that was interrupted by frequent digressions about how strong she was and how awesome and she smelled nice and had he mentioned that sex with her was _really fantastic_ but probably not a good idea right now because he was tied to a post, and also he just _knew_ when he saw her that there was something special about her and her voice sounded _so nice_ and also his head hurt.

This last one worried her a bit (and upset her a lot), because he kept mentioning it, and she could see by the bruising on his face and the half-dried blood in his hair that they hadn't been gentle with him. They'd gotten in a few hits on her too, but Danny they'd beaten half unconscious. Interrogation drugs couldn't be interacting with a head injury in any good way.

"-- and I really _like_ you, Colleen, and also I love you, of course --" Her stomach flipped in an almost uncomfortable sort of way, but he was already rambling on. "-- but you're just so much fun to spend time with, and so awesome, did I tell you how awesome you are?"

"A few times," she said, half-laughing, and wondered how much of this they'd been getting upstairs.

"Your hair is so _soft,"_ Danny said wistfully. "I wish I could touch it. But you're all the way over there and I'm here. Because I'm tied to a post."

"Yes, you are, and I am too, but I'd very much like not to be." She was getting closer to worming her right wrist free, though it felt like she was taking off most of the skin in the process. "Did you see how many guards were outside?"

Bits and pieces of useful information continued to be dropped in between long rhapsodic monologues on Colleen's assorted awesome features ("Your eyes are just like, I can't think of anything that's pretty enough, I was going to say stars but that's not right. Your eyes are like your eyes, Colleen, they're beautiful and I could drown in them and I wish I could see them from all the way over here") with digressions in which he went on a mental walkabout to ramble about how awesome various other people were. 

"Did I tell you about Davos? No wait, you met Davos, so you already know how cool he is. He's so cool."

"I guess so," Colleen said. Her impression of Davos was really more that he was a rude jerk.

"He took care of me after they found me in the snow, and he was so gentle with me and so patient, and basically he was just really _good_ at all the training exercises they had us do, he's so talented, Colleen, and he was actually better than me at so much of that stuff, and I wish I could tell him that I didn't really want to fight him, it's just that he said those things about you ..."

She finally managed to steer him away from Davos only to have the conversation veer in an even worse direction.

"-- I didn't know Matt was going to do that, the building just fell on him, Colleen, I would have stopped it if I could have --"

"I know," she said, bumping his foot repeatedly with her own, the closest thing to comfort she could offer. "Danny, it's okay. You did everything you could to save Matt. No one could have done more."

"At least I got to Ward and Joy in time. Have I told you about --"

Oh no, she thought, here we go again.

"-- how _sweet_ Joy is, I mean she really is, she doesn't like people to know it but she's actually a really nice person, and she remembered about the brown M&Ms and who remembers things like that after all these years? -- I really wish I had seen what Harold _was_ early enough to do something about it, because I should have, Colleen, I'm trained for it and they weren't and they had to deal with it all those years when I wasn't there --"

"You were stuck in K'un Lun and couldn't leave," she told him, prodding his foot with hers.

"Right, that's true. I was. Did I tell you about fighting a dragon, Colleen?"

"Yes," she said, a bit desperately. "Many times." She had a feeling she was going to hear about it again, though. 

 

*

 

"-- really _like_ Ward, though, I mean I always did, it's just that I wished he'd be a little nicer, but I understand now why he wasn't, and he actually is really fun to spend time with when we just hang out and I hope we do it more now that he's back in town and nobody's trying to kill us, I mean aside from occasional kidnappings, but anyway I feel like we could really be brothers now and I just like spending time with him _so much_ and I wish he'd talk to me more --"

"-- ever tell you about how strong Jessica is? Because she is SO strong. Like she actually caught me and Luke when we were about to fall down the elevator shaft at Midland Circle and she was holding the entire elevator too, and I mean, who _does_ that, it's just that she's pretty much amazing and --"

"-- so I can't believe Luke likes hanging out with me, because he's the Hero of Harlem, he's actually _famous,_ Colleen, he's like a big-time superhero and I feel like I can learn so much from him --"

"-- ever mention that your skin is absolutely perfect? Because it is, Colleen, your skin is the very best skin --"

By now she was mostly just letting Danny talk while she worked on getting herself free, slowly but surely working the spikes out of the post they were embedded in. Danny's voice had grown hoarse and cracked, but attempts to get him to stop talking didn't really manage to achieve anything. Given Danny's slightly hyperactive tendencies in general, she had a feeling that in addition to lowering what inhibitions he had to begin with, the drug had made him restless and he was dealing with it in the only way he had to deal.

It bothered her a lot, though, that his voice was getting scratchier and weaker, with longer intervals between rambling anecdotes. 

"Danny?" she urged, after a particularly long period of silence. His head was drooping, sweat-soaked curls hanging down over his face, and she was worried he might have passed out. She nudged his foot repeatedly.

"I really don't feel good, Colleen." His voice was small, and it made her chest hurt.

"I know. We'll be out of here soon, okay?"

"Okay," he agreed meekly. "You'll get us out, I'm sure you will. I wish I could get the Fist to work. I've really been trying."

"I know you have."

"My head hurts and I feel really sick but if I could just get the Fist --"

"Oh, thank _goodness,"_ Colleen gasped, wrenching her hands free. 

Her wrists were slippery with blood, but she ignored that, as well as the zip-ties, which could be dealt with later. She wriggled out of the chains, kicked them off with vast relief, and set to work freeing Danny.

"Hi, Colleen," he said faintly, and she took his face in her hands and gave him a quick kiss. His mouth tasted like blood from his split lip, and also had a faint chemical taste from whatever they'd given him. She didn't really care; it just felt good to be able to touch him.

"Hi there. Want to get out of here?"

"Yes, please. I feel terrible. Was I talking much?"

Colleen managed to choke down a laugh. "Not too much," she said.

 

*

 

Escaping with Danny draped on her shoulder wasn't the easiest thing, but she managed, especially after finding her katana. She made sure to get in some extra stomps and a few gratuitous broken bones on the guys she met on the way out, just for the bruises on Danny's face. She also stole one of their phones.

It had the Uber app on it. That was easier than calling a cab.

"Er ... Fred?" the Uber driver said, five minutes later, giving them an extremely nervous look. Colleen was impressed that he hadn't just driven away as soon as he caught sight of the two of them, both of them ragged and filthy and smeared with blood that was both their own and someone else's. Danny hung onto Colleen's shoulder and looked faintly green.

"Yes!" Colleen said quickly, and dragged Danny into the backseat before anyone could change their mind.

 

*

 

Back at the dojo, _finally,_ she closed and locked the door, and then hauled Danny into the shower.

After a very long shower and some quality time with the first-aid kit, she called Claire to make sure that she didn't need to take Danny to the emergency room. Claire thought he'd be okay as long as he didn't have any secondary symptoms (he was currently crashed and out like a light in their bed). Then she put in a call to Misty about a bunch of guys who might allegedly have kidnapped some people and might possibly be involved in other illegal activities the police might want to know about. And then she crashed next to Danny and slept for about fourteen hours.

When she woke, late afternoon sunshine was slanting across the bed. Danny was still asleep beside her, a tangle of gold curls and a bare shoulder, but when she stirred, he did too, and turned to look at her sleepily.

"Hi," she murmured.

"Hi," Danny said with a sleepy smile, and he grinned when she kissed him. Then the grin faltered and went through a few different shades of confusion, and he said, "Did I, uh ... did we just ..."

"Yes," Colleen said.

"So I was ... drugged ...?"

"Yeah. That happened."

"Did I talk about the Iron Fist for a couple of hours, or did I dream that?"

"You talked about a lot of other things too."

"Oh no," Danny groaned, and put a pillow over his face. "I hoped I dreamed that," he said, muffled.

"Danny. Danny, stop." She had to laugh as she peeled it away, and Danny's embarrassed, bruised face slowly emerged. "Listen, all you did for a solid four or five hours was tell me in great detail about how much you like everyone you know and how great they are. You must have talked for ten minutes just about the lady who sells flowers on the corner outside the dojo. It was adorable." She kissed him lightly, careful to avoid the cracked places on his lips. "How do you feel?"

A faint grin emerged. "Kind of hung over. Really hungry."

"How about I go make us some pancakes?"

"That'd be great. Can I help?"

She sat up and looked down at him, as he lay there blinking sleepily in the golden sun shafting through the window. "I dunno. Do you want to tell me again how great I am?"

"You're great, Colleen."

"You were way more poetic on drugs."

Danny grinned and pushed himself up on his elbow. "You're beautiful and smart and wonderful."

"Getting there."

"I love the way your nose crinkles right before you stab people."

She pushed him back down onto the bed with a hand on his chest, right above the curve of the dragon tattoo. He went willingly, grinning at her. "Okay, you're definitely feeling better," she said, and leaned down to kiss his nose. "I'll go make pancakes. All you need to do is lay here and -- what's wrong?"

He'd caught her wrist gently, turning it to look at the abrasions. "Oh, Colleen."

"I just had to get free," she said, suddenly feeling unaccountably embarrassed herself.

Danny lightly touched her wrist to his lips, as if kissing it better. Her chest hurt. Before Danny, she couldn't even remember the last time anyone had touched her with the kind of tenderness that he handed out so freely.

"I hope you kicked them really good for this."

"Oh yes," she said. "And I've also sicced Misty on them."

"Good." He looked up at her with soft eyes that had a fire burning somewhere in their depths, not for himself but for her. 

A sudden, helpless love for him swept over her. He was the kind of person who could be drugged and beaten half senseless, and all it did was make him talk endlessly about how much he loved her and how great all his friends were, and then after it wore off, all he could think about was not his own hurts, but hers.

She leaned down and kissed him fiercely, until the metallic taste of blood reminded her that she had to be careful with his split lip. He didn't seem to mind, though.

"What was that for?" he asked quietly, looking up at her with drowsy adoration.

"You," she said simply, and brushed her hand down his cheek. "Now I'm going to make pancakes for us. If you fall back asleep, I'll wake you up when they're done."

"I always wake up for pancakes."

"I know," she said, laughing. She kissed his cheek and then went off to the half-renovated kitchenette in a T-shirt and underwear to dig out the biggest bowl she owned and crack some eggs into it. 

She tried not to dwell on it too much, but it was hard not to think about the fact that, as if in counterpoint to all the people who had betrayed and disappointed her lately, Danny wasn't trying to be anything other than what he was. He had hidden anger and fear and doubt, sure. Everyone did. But fundamentally, he was a warm, sunny person who loved his friends and loved her, and when you stripped him down to his basic urges, all he really wanted to do was tell the people he cared about how much he loved them.

 _I love you too, Danny Rand,_ she thought, and grinned to herself, and reached for the flour.


End file.
